New World of Wonders: European Images of the Americas, 1492-1700

New World of Wonders: European Images of the Americas, 1492-1700

Arts & Photography

Folger Shakespeare Library

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Folger Shakespeare Lib

Table of contents, foreword, bibliography, index. An anthology of contemporary works published on this subject, the era of the "Great Rebuilding" in England 1570-1640 . Black and white illustrations. viii, 164, 4 pages. stiff paper wrappers. 4to..

Elizabethan Households: An Anthology

Orlin, Lena Cowen

The etchings of Wenceslaus Hollar have done more to shape our ideas of 17th-century English life than the work of any other artist. This volume presents 150 of his etchings, representative of his entire career, along with a biography and account of his etching techniques.

Impressions of Wenceslaus Hollar

Hollar, Wenceslaus

Biggs, Julie L.

Brobeck, Carol

Doggett, Rachel

While Shakespeare did not create rebellious feminists in the modern sense of the term, nevertheless it is fascinating to see the variety of ways his heroines operate in, rebel against, attempt to rule, or are crushed by a hierarchical, male-oriented social structure.
Shakespeare's Unruly Women examines the ways in which the Victorian period interpreted Shakespeare's characters according to their own notions of what it meant to be a woman. It includes material from the late 18th and early 20th centuries but focuses primarily on the ways in which Shakespeare's heroines were appropriated into the moral, literary, and theatrical cultures of the 19th century. It looks at specific heroines, and at the turn-of-the-century psychoanalytic commentary occasioned by the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 1916.

Shakespeare's Unruly Women

Dolan, Frances E.

Roberts, Jeanne Addison

Ziegler, Georgianna

The phrase "all is but Fortune" (The Tempest 5.1) expresses both the hope and the resignation that characterize the Renaissance attitude to Fortune that is illustrated and discussed here. Throughout the medieval centuries, the fickle goddess survived in all sorts of literary and artistic sources, ready to be appropriated in traditional as well as innovative ways by the artists and writers of early modern Europe. Political thinkers like Machiavelli invoked her, as did physicians, playwrights, printers, painters, pamphleteers, even philosophers.
 This book explores the vast array of allusions to Fortune embedded in the Folger Shakespeare Library's books and manuscripts. Representations of Fortune from classical antiquity to the late Renaissance in England and on the Continent are the main focus. In the evolution of the depiction of Fortune over this period of time it is possible to see how the idea itself changes. The idea that Fortune can be controlled is an important aspect of this study since it is an idea found not only in illustrations but in literature as well. Indeed, Fortune is a central element of many plays, poems, and prose works throughout the Renaissance, which the Folger Library's wide collection makes it possible to bring together here.

Fortune: All Is but Fortune

Thomson, Leslie

Study & Teaching

Books are such an integral part of every facet of our lives that, even as we wonder about their future, we easily forget how precious they were to early modern readers. The close relationship between reader and book, between reading and writing, during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries has left us with a large body of evidence not only of the habits of individual readers but of the social and intellectual worlds they inhabited. 
The Reader Revealed brings to life the early owners and readers of books from the Folger Shakespeare Library, from the humble and pious to the most assiduous collectors. Early readers read with pen in hand; it is in their underlinings, emendations, and other marginalia that these readers are most vividly revealed to us. 
From highly decorated icon books to cheap, well-thumbed chap books of the late 17th century--which were carried in pockets until many disintegrated--The Reader Revealed shows the variety of ways in which readers have related to books over the centuries. The use of books as repositories of birth records, scholarly marginalia, and schoolboy doodles is also examined.

The Reader Revealed

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

This lively book surveys the history, buildings, collections, and activities of the 70-year-old Folger Shakespeare Library. Built to house Henry and Emily Folger's collection of Shakespeareana (still the world's largest), the Folger has become a world-class resource for materials on European culture from 1500 to 1750. Among other topics, Infinite Variety celebrates the breadth of the Folger's interests with color photographs and stories of several dozen items - a First Folio of Shakespeare; Elizabeth I's own Bishops' Bible; a housewife's recipe book, hand-written about 1610; paintings by Hilliard and Fuseli; early maps, music, and scientific works; theatrical memorabilia of Edwin Booth, Laurence Olivier, and Paul Robeson; and more.

Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library

This lively book surveys the history, buildings, collections, and activities of the 70-year-old Folger Shakespeare Library. Built to house Henry and Emily Folgerís collection of Shakespeareana (still the worldís largest), the Folger has become a world-class resource for materials on European culture from 1500 to 1750. Among other topics, Infinite Variety celebrates the breadth of the Folgerís interests with color photographs and stories of several dozen items -- a First Folio of Shakespeare; Elizabeth Iís own Bishopsí Bible; a housewifeís recipe book, hand-written about 1610; paintings by Hilliard and Fuseli; early maps, music, and scientific works; theatrical memorabilia of Edwin Booth, Laurence Olivier, and Paul Robeson; and more.

The Folger Shakespeare Library includes among its holdings the largest collection of materials in North America relating to Elizabeth I, including thirty-eight documents signed by the queen. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Elizabeth’s death in March 1603, the Folger Library mounted an ambitious exhibition of more than one hundred books, manuscripts, and works of art from its collections. The rich materials in the Folger Library’s collection portray Elizabeth in stunning detail, as affectionate stepdaughter and censorious cousin, as humanist prince, as powerful and often capricious patroness, and as a private person. She was the center not only of national culture but also of a vibrant court culture with complex ritual practices such as elaborate New Year’s gift exchanges and summertime progresses through the countryside. Her self-fashioning literally involved the use of "fashion." She dressed to be seen; her clothes made a statement about her power as a female ruler and about the stability and strength of her nation. The many portraits of Elizabeth which survive, including the 1579 Sieve portrait featured on the cover, suggest the complex interplay between the queen’s politics of self-display and her powerful vanity. Essays by noted scholars Carole Levin, Heidi Brayman Hackel, Janel Mueller, Sheila Ffolliott, and Barbara Hodgdon explore Elizabeth’s life, her books, her portraits, the many documents in the Folger Library relating to her, and her continuing charismatic power in British and American culture.

Elizabeth I: Then and Now

Graphic Design

Letterwriting in Renaissance England reproduces in full size and transcribes a number of letters from the early sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. Both a sourcebook for scholars and a treasure trove for the general reader, the book includes sections on love letters, secret letters, letterwriting manuals, and on the tools required to write letters. It describes the beginnings of the postal service in England and introduces a consistent terminology for describing Renaissance letters and their various parts. 
The letters of this collection speak for themselves. They are funnier, richer, more bizarre, and more moving than anything the fiction of the period has to offer, and lead to a more convincing picture of everyday life in early modern England.

Letterwriting In Renaissance England

STEWART, Alan

Wolfe, Heather

Essays & Correspondence

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Folger Shakespeare Lib publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Folger Shakespeare Lib

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Folger Shakespeare Lib publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

New World of Wonders: European Images of the Americas, 1492-1700

Elizabethan Households: An Anthology

Impressions of Wenceslaus Hollar

Shakespeare's Unruly Women

Fortune: All Is but Fortune

The Reader Revealed

Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library

Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library

Elizabeth I: Then and Now

Letterwriting In Renaissance England